Let's face it, most
horror films do not compare well to mainstream
Comedy/Drama/Action. A few exceptions come to mind like
Poltergeist, The Birds, The Exorcist, Jaws and Psycho,
but, for the most part, comparing horror to mainstream
movies is not even useful. More useful is comparing them
to other films in the genre. I feel the same way about
erotica, porn, and westerns. Note that all four of these
genres have huge followings. So even if they are not
great cinema, they are entertaining. That being the case,
I feel that "B" bimbos have celebrity. The
Puppet Master (1989), by director David Schmoeller
compares well to other horror films in my opinion.

Schmoeller, in a
"making of" featurette observes that there are
two kinds of scary. The first is surprise, as in jumping
out of a closet and saying boo. The second is suspense
(pioneered by Hitchcock) where the audience sees the
threat, but the character doesn't. The suspense is
heightened if the audience feels a rapport with the
character. Puppet Master uses suspense, not surprise.
Films using suspense can afford a slower, more even pace.
There is also time for more detailed character
development (which is necessary for the heightened
suspense).

In the case of Puppet
Master, Schmoeller finds a way to employ suspense and
control production costs with a simple camera technique.
Cut to still of puppet, then show first person POV from a
low camera angle chasing the victim. This lets the
audience in on the secret (necessary to the suspense),
while saving a fortune on puppeteers. To give you an
idea, one 16 second segment of stop motion puppet
animation took three days to shoot, and the actual
puppeteering required as many as five puppeteers per
puppet.

Now, to the story. It
is 1939 at a hotel in Bodega Bay, and a puppet maker has
learned the secret of animating puppets (an ancient
Egyptian trick), but hides his creations then kills
himself when he realizes the Nazis are after him. Fast
forward to the present day. An group of widely scattered
psychic friends are psychically contacted to come to
Bodega Bay by one of their number. They arrive to find
him dead. Not long after, they find out one at a time
about the puppets, mostly the hard way. We have a short
cameo appearance by Barbara Crampton. The exposure is
provided by a two time wonder -- Kathryn O'Reilly.

This is neither the
first nor the last film to use toys come to life as a
plot device. Some critics of Puppet Master think of this
as a flaw. Funny they didn't feel that way about the
jack-in-the-box in Poltergeist. This film features better
than average acting and plot development for horror, goes
very light on gore, has good puppeteering, some wonderful
set design and good photography, the DVD quality is good,
and the "making of" featurette is interesting.
If you enjoy horror (you know who you are) then don't
avoid this one.

"Puppet
Master II" (1990)

Puppet Master 2 follows the
formula for a horror sequel. Up the body count, up the
gore level, don't worry as much about plot, and use
cheesy dialogue to make sure even the mentally defective
can follow the plot. This time, the director is special
effects expert Dave Allen, and we have none of the clever
camera work, much more of the puppets in action, and even
a new puppet called flame, who is sort of a Nazi with
bullets for teeth, a flame thrower arm (roasts a fat lady
with it, and she didn't sing) and a bad temper. The
puppets in the original were basically likeable, but
followed the will of their master. This time, they are
more like juvenile delinquents. The horror here is more
of the surprise variety than suspense.

It is a few years after the
first story ended.The widow has died (her brains were
sucked out through her eyes), and the hotel has become
the property of the federal government. Before the
opening credits, the puppets dig up the original puppet
master, and re-animate him. The part of the puppet master
is played by the invisible man, bandages and all. He is a
little the worse for wear having been dead for 50 years.
Meanwhile, a group of FBI agents/paranormal investigators
arrive at the house to look for signs of the
supernatural. They, of course, find what they are looking
for and more, while the puppet master reveals his master
plan, which is to revive his dead wife, who happens to
look just like the head FBI agent. The exposure is by one
of the FBI people, who sits up in bed topless, stands up
adjusting her panties, and walks across the room. She
does all this to put on a shirt and go back to bed. She
is Charlie Spradling, who has 26 credits at IMDB.

Maltin rates this one as mildly
better than the first, but it has none of the elements I
liked in the original.

"Puppet
Master III" (1991)

This threequel is a prequel, and
explains how the Puppet Master ends up in Bodega Bay with
Nazis on his heels. He is running a friendly anti-Hitler
puppet show in WW2 Berlin. A gestapo officer who is also
a puppeteer catches his act, suggests a different topic
for the show, then spies on him as he feeds his puppets.
Realizing that the puppets are actually alive, he brings
the discovery to Herman Hess, who is working on a formula
to do a similar thing, but with dead soldiers. Hess and
the gestapo don't see eye to eye on what to do with the
Puppet Master, and the Puppet Master (and his puppets)
takes a dim view of their murdering his wife.

This is better than number two.
It is better directed, and the art direction is better
again. It is actually more of an action flick than
horror. The acting is a little wooden, but it is
watchable. All of the nudity is again gratuitous. A
gestapo general has a fondness for a whorehouse, and we
see him there twice. First time, he is being bathed by
Jasmine Totschek on the left and Landon Hall on the
right, with Michelle Bauer wandering around in the back.
The second time, Michelle is riding him. We also have a
new puppet (Sixgun) who has six arms all with working
guns.

"Puppet
Master 4 (1993) and 5 (1994)"

Puppet Master 4 and 5 are
chronologically after Puppet Master II, and are really
one episode. They were, in fact, filmed concurrently. I
think of them as a homage to Gremlins, as the evil
creatures from the dark side, sent to kill everyone who
knows the secret of re-animation, look very much like
Gremlins, and all of the puppets start talking like
Gizmo. A young genius is working in the hotel in Bodega
Bay on a secret government contract which is trying to
merge artificial intelligence with robotics. The evil
creatures are sent to kill his colleagues first. His
girlfriend and another couple arrive to spend the weekend
with him. The other couple are an asshole (he also works
on the same project) and his psychic girlfriend. The
psychic girlfriend discovers the puppets and what they
can do. An evil creature is delivered to the hotel and
does in the asshole, then goes after the rest. The
puppets join forces with the good guys and, with the help
of a new super-puppet named Decapitron, defeat the evil
creatures.

Puppet Master 4 stinks (so does
5). The plot is thin, the acting ranges from bad to ok,
the art direction is only so so, the dialogue is the
pits, and there are many obvious continuity problems. I
will point out one research error. We are led to believe
that our hero is working on a secret project in the
hotel, where he is living as a caretaker during the off
season. For him to be doing secret work, he would need a
facility clearance, and a classified computer system. His
Packard Bell computer is clearly not cleared or secured,
and, to have a facility clearance, he would need either
24/7 guards, or a security system and approved secure
locks, and he would need a classified container. None of
this is present. Add the fact that there is no nudity
whatsoever, and that the puppeteering for some reason has
seriously deteriorated, and this is one to skip
completely.

The good news is that the first
10 minutes of Puppet Master 5 are a detailed summary of
number 4, so you can safely skip 4 completely. The bad
news is that 5 is no better than 4, and also has no
nudity. After the 10 minute remake of 4, we find our hero
in jail, and charged with the murders of his associates.
The company pays his bail, and he returns to the Hotel in
Bodega bay, which has been sealed by the police, to
retrieve the puppets. The acting company president also
breaks in to the hotel with three hoods to steal the
puppets, so he can sell them to the DOD under the table.
The dark lord unleashes his nastiest demon yet, who does
in all of the bad guys. Our hero is visited by the
original puppet master Tulon in the form of a morphing
Decapitron and made the new puppet master. He, together
with the puppets, defeats the evil demon. We are warned
of future sequels in the last scene. There are, in fact,
two more, and I will review them when I am up to two more
bad films.